Month: October 2013

Finding a company to print your custom tees at a reasonable rate can be difficult… or is it? Staying on budget is easier than you think!

Most t-shirt companies won’t spend the time to educate you on the process, so most potential customers simply become quoters instead. It is very easy to get frustrated with the quoting process, but armed with these 5 little tips, not only will you have great looking shirts, you will come in under budget almost every time. Follow these steps and watch your price drop in seconds when quoting with a company, online or by phone.

1. Print Less Colors

When deciding to have custom t-shirts printed for your event or organization, just keep in mind that the more colors you are printing, the more expensive your price per shirt will become. It’s just that simple.

Almost every logo can be altered from a full color piece of digital art into a single color screen print using simple outlines or converted to greyscale. The important thing is to consider how important it is that your design be printed in full color if you are simply giving them away or if it is for a one time event. We have found that it is usually better to get shirts with a greyscale design than none at all in order to keep pricing on track.

2. Increase Your Quantity

In this industry, quantity is king. There is nothing else, besides number of print colors, that can move the price per shirt like quantity can. The more shirts you order, the less expensive it is. You would be surprised how a 12 piece quote can be cut down by 30% by simply jumping up to 24 pieces! It happens so quickly, especially at smaller quantities. Experiment when quoting and you will find that you might end up with more shirts than you intended at just a few bucks more than you intended on spending!

3. Reduce the Number of Print Locations

Size DOESN’T matter in the screen printing world. That’s right, it’s all about how many locations you are printing on, not how big it is.

For example, if you have a large print on front and a large print on back, it would be the same exact price as a small print on the front and a small print on the back. By simply removing the design from one side of the shirt, you can easily shave 10%-15% off the originally quoted price! We have also seen it where a customer wants to print on front, back, and both sleeves, and they are simply not thinking about the cost because they are normally under the impression that since the sleeve prints will be small, it will not be that expensive. I bet you would be surprised to hear that sleeve prints are actually more difficult than a full sized chest print on the front or back of a t-shirt! When it comes to screen printing, the simpler the better… for pricing purposes.

4. Use a White or Heather Grey Garment

Save money by simply changing your dark shirt color to white or heather grey. In most cases, the manufacturer will have these colors at a lower price point, white still being the cheapest. By changing from a dark shirt color to one of these two colors, you are allowing the screen printer to save money on the garments because they are priced lower than their colored counterparts. This will also normally cut the production time in half if it went from printing a light color ink on a dark color garment to printing a dark color ink on a white or heather grey garment.

Every t-shirt company’s number one commodity is their valuable press time… help them save time on your job and they should be more than happy to pass on the savings.

5. Be Flexible with Your Deadline

All t-shirt companies usually have some down time here and there. By allowing the company you are working with to do it at their own pace, they might be willing to discount your order by simply allowing some leniency with your deadline. Obviously, we all want delivery of the items we purchase to occur as quickly as possible, but if it really does not matter when you receive them, it’s worth asking if there is any leeway with pricing!

As you utilize each of these tips, watch the price per shirt slim down quickly! If you are just in the quoting stage right now, watch how quickly your pricing is affected by the tips above. You can calculate in seconds with this instant quote tool below.

3. White Shirts / 48 Pieces / 2 color front ONLY = $6.37 per tee
– Almost a 31% savings by removing the back design and changing the shirt color to white

4. White Shirts / 96 Pieces / 2 color front ONLY = $5.42 per tee
– Almost a 42% savings by removing the back design, changing the shirt color to white, and increasing the quantity

5. White Shirts / 96 Pieces / 1 color front ONLY = $4.89 per tee
– Almost a 47% savings by removing the back design, changing the shirt color to white, increasing the quantity, and reducing the ink colors on front from 2 to 1

As I said… SIMPLE! Making custom t-shirts doesn’t have to be expensive… they can actually be quite cheap if you take the time to ask just a few simple questions when quoting.

Now get out there with your new found knowledge and get your order on budget! You can always start with one of the industry’s most popular styles, the G200 by Gildan.

Still trolling Pinterest for the most awesome Halloween costume idea? Time is starting to run out and if you’re like most people these days, you’re on a budget. Stop drooling over cosplay ideas, you don’t have the time and money for a customized female version of the Mad Hatter with a Steam Punk undertone. Don’t even think about going online to buy a costume; they’re overpriced and usually very unoriginal. Chances are you’ll show up at the party and someone else will be wearing the exact same costume. As a t-shirt company we know the versatility of our favorite garment and seen a lot of affordable and creative ideas that use tees as the base of a great Halloween costume.

Do you have Superman t-shirt laying around? Take your tee and add a button down and some glasses, then you have a great look that transitions Clark Kent into Superman. And the best part is no tight necessary. We’ve noticed a lot of t-shirts that are made in the same style as the infamous tuxedo shirt, but this time they are the costume of your favorite pop culture icons like Batman, Superman, Aquaman, and even several of the Doctors.

Customized Halloween t-shirts are an affordable and inspiration start to a great Halloween costume. Here are few examples we found throughout the web. If you have an idea for a group Halloween costume, head on over to our Design Studio and make it happen!

[slideshow_deploy id=’2382′] So, over the summer Kanye West launched a line of expensive t-shirts that cost $120 each and it doesn’t even feature a customized screen printed design. That’s what they call kray these days (or cray, the debate is still out). It didn’t surprise anyone when the shirts sold out. While most of us spend that on an entire outfit, others are able to drop a car payment on a simple tee. With a price tag like that, it better be super soft; we’re talking vintage tee soft.

While many of us can’t put a price tag on our favorite concert, school, or sports team t-shirt, we probably didn’t spend more than $25 bucks on it. And if you’re buying plain white t-shirts, they probably cost less than ten bucks and come in a pack of three. We were surprised at the amount people may be willing to pay for a t-shirt, which means maybe we should take a second look at our price lists.

So, are Mr. West’s fans alone in this endeavor? After a little research we found that there are hefty price tags on a lot of tees out there. But what makes an expensive t-shirt warrant the price? There are a variety of factors, we found several autographed tees and even a collectors item. So by the power of a few Google searches we give you our list of the top five most expensive t-shirts.